Making own sofa covers? Is it easy?

skintchick

I desperately want to cover my sofa.

It's a sofabed, and I cannot find any companies willing to make me a loose cover for it. I am not sure if this is because it's a sofabed, or because the back and arms are kind of one moulded piece (it doesn;t have cushions).

Anyway, there's not a lot wrong with it and as we hope to move house next year we don;t want to buy new furniture as it probably won;t be what we want for the new house.

But the sofa is bright blue and the room is now a soft beigey-yellow so it is a bit out of place, plus with a baby on the way I reckon washable covers will be handy!

I don;t mind about it fitting perfectly, and I know I won;t be able to make the piping myself, but I wondered if anyone had any tips on how to make a cover for it?

I have a sewing machine although I'm better at hand sewing, and I have time as I'm on maternity leave, so if anyone can help Id' be grateful (and if you know anyone who would make me a cover then let me know!I'd rather not DIY but I seem to have no choice).

Pink.

Hi skintchick,

Making loose covers for a sofa can be difficult at the best of tmes and considering how you've been feeling lately it might be better to see if there is a local seamstress who would be prepared to make them for you.

If you do decide to have a go yourself, these links might help:

step by step how to make a loose cover

my new slipcover

Pink

Pooky

The easiest option if you've not done pattern cutting before is to pop to your nearest primark, buy several of their large soft fleecy blankets - £4 each...then use those, tucked in and around to make an easily removable cover....

I've got the choccy brown ones, they're very soft and stretchy and wash up really well, once they're tucked in and behind they look like a fitted cover without the hassle of getting the sewing machine out.

I did look at recovering mine but a decent, washable fabric was going to cost around £10 a metre...I was going to need around 15 metres.....I only needed 7 blankets

rosekitten

I would just chuck a throw over it
do you have a pic of it ? to get
a better idea.

kunekune

I made a cover for a sofa once. It was quite fun, watching it come together, but it was really hard work, and fiddly. It never quite fitted exactly right, had to be tucked and tugged a bit. However, I recently had an email from the person who we passed it on to, and apparently 20 years on, it is still on the sofa and wearing well! Having gone through several cheaper 'loose' ones in the meantime, I think that it was probably well worth the effort of learning how to do it.

maman

Slightly off the point but does anyone make those covers that go over dining chairs. I've seen them in Ikea but they aren't cheap and don't really fit my chairs.

skintchick

rosekitten wrote: »

I would just chuck a throw over it
do you have a pic of it ? to get
a better idea.

I don;t want to partially cover it with a throw which OH will manage to dislodge onto the floor every five minutes, I want to totally cover it.

For some reason I only have a pic of half of it, but you get the idea:

skintchick

I posted on here a while ago about wanting to make a sofa cover and needing help. I only found a couple of things online that would help me, as I wanted a fitted one not a loose throw.

Well, after much procrastination I started yesterday!

I'm posting here in case people can help me with hints and tips as I go along, especially in terms of making the pattern.

I have a blog I've posted on about it, the post is here http://knittinglentils.wordpress.com/2009/07/08/wifey-does-home-making-a-new-diy-sofa-cover/

but here is the story anyway in case you don't want to read my blog.

I measured the sofa and went to London to get fabric. I tried the famous Berwick Street but they only do fashion fabrics for clothes, so was eventually directed to a place called Alexander Furnishings behind Oxford Street, where the VERY helpful man worked out how much I’d need and sold me a beautiful gold damask fabric.

But 11 metres came out at over £180 so that mde me very scared indeed! My original plan had been to drape the fabric right-side-down over the sofa, then just pin it into shape and sew.

But the cost of the fabric made me think I should do this properly, and as I’m now 38 weeks’ pregnant I kinda needed to get on with it!

So yesterday I began the project.

I bought two double flat sheets and a double duvet cover from Oxfam for about £9 and set about draping them over the sofa, cutting to create rectangular pattern pieces for each section: back and seat back, arms, front of arms, front panel and the panel underneath which flaps us because it’s a sofa bed and we need access to the bed mechanism.

I also pleated and sewed the arm pieces so they have the right shape.

Today I have to work out how to continue. My idea is to mark the actual outline of the pieces with pen, then sew the pattern together and check it fits, before cutting the real fabric.

No idea if this how you should do it, but there is nothing online to guide me and so I have to just wing it!

Here are some pictures:

This is the sofa
Front of sofa

and this is the arm
Sofa arm

and this is the sofa bed bit
sofa bed flap that lifts up


And here are some showing the rectangular pattern pieces and the pleating I’ve done on the arm to shape it.
All pattern pieces laid on sofa

arm pieces

arm pleating


So now my task is to try and put it all together before daring to cut the real fabric!

My main issue is whether the plan ot draw on the pattern material and then sew along those lines is a good one, which is why it's gone 3 and I still haven't done it!

But I can't think of a better way of doing it really, other than sewing it while it's on the sofa which will be difficult with a baby bump.

MrsBartolozzi

Hi good luck to you, it's something I've thought about doing, just the cost of the fabric and the high chance I make a mess stop me !!

I've read this blog about a girl making a sofa cover, maybe you'll get a few tips from here?
Good luck on your challenge (and baby too!).

MrsB.

rufusdog52

Hi Skintchick, I covered my sofa last year and did it how you are doing by cutting out a "pattern from old sheets and using these to cut out the fabric so I didnt get it wrong.

Is your new fabric patterened? If so remember when covering the cushions to try to get the pattern centred so it looks more professional.

Also do you know how to do the piping round the edges? If you have bought enough extra material you can use that quite easily with some white upholstery cord but you need to cut the fabric on the cross to get it to look right and go round corners etc.

I was lucky and bought my fabric off ebay and it only cost me £80. I covered the sofa and armchair for that and had enough to do a rough job on the pouffe too.

I haven't had any lessons how to do it properly, just guessed the whole thing but everyone says it looks nice. If you want any more help pm me xx

rosieben

Just posted on your blog but thought I'd post here too. I've absolutely no advice to give but I'm interested in how you're doing this as my sofa would definitely benefit from covers! Good luck with this